Type.



' No. 720,314. I PATENTED PBBIIO, 1903.

' M. F. BENTON.

TYPE.

APPLIOATION mum 00T.17, 1901;

MAW-N55555: bk/ENTQR:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MORRIS F. BENTON, OF NEV YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN TYPEFOUNDERS COMPANY, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

TYPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 720,314, dated February10, 1903.

Application filed October 17, 1901. Serial No. 79,026. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MORRIS FULLER BEN- TON, of New York, county andState of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Type,of which the following is a specification.

The purpose of my invention is to produce a font of type in imitation ofhand-engraving, and I have illustrated it in connection with certaintext-letters which lend themselves very easily to this treatment; but Ido not mean to limit the use of my invention solely to type of thisdesign One noticeable peculiarity of this text-letter type lies in theserifs or lines projecting from the main body of the letter and havingsome ornamental or other like characteristic. If a letter having suchcharacteristics is cast upon a set of sufficient width to hold theentire letter with all its characteristics and this letter be composedwith other letters of the same font, some of which have and some ofwhich have not corresponding characteristics, it will be seen that thespacing of the matter printed will appear to be very irregular.

My invention is intended to reduce this apparent irregularity bysupplying in a font with the letters which shall be without serifsextension characters, each of which may contain one or more oftheseserifs or ornamentations so arranged as to register with either one of anumber of similar letters. In order to limit the number of theseextension characters, I prefer to make them on a body one half the sizeof the body containing the letters of the font, each extension characterbeing capable of use with either one of others of like nature or with aspace of the same set, as will be understood from what is stated below.

My invention will be understood by reference to the drawings, in which-Figure 1 shows in perspective a series of types constructed inconformity to my invention. Fig. 2 is a collection of extensioncharacters, some of which have registering serifs or ornamentation ofthe character referred to and other supply-spaces of the same set as theextension character. Fig. 3 shows a modification of the construction ofthese spaces, as will be described below. Fig. 4 shows an impressiontaken from type constructed after the present manner, and Fig. 5 acorresponding set of letters printed from a font embodying my invention.Figs. 6 and 7 represent a modification referred to below.

A A are types each having a face a.

B B are extension characters each having a face I) made up of serifs orornamentations, 850., adapted for use with one or more of the faces onthe types A and arranged to register with some portion thereof. Bdesignates spaces adapted to be used with the extension characters B. Itwill be readily understood that the faces of these extension charactersmay be varied somewhat for use after the same letter. Thus the extensioncharacter to follow a final e may diifer from the extension character tobe used between an e and f in the middle of a word, for the reason thatin the first instance the space-piece will provide only the righthandcharacteristic or serif for the letter 0, While in the second instanceit will carry the right-hand serif of the letter e, and it will alsocarry the left-hand characteristic or serif of the letter f. emphasizesthe important feature of this invention, which enables two letters to beset close together, with their serifs projecting into the same verticalspace, thus giving the word to this extent'the appearance of having beenengraved. This will be understood by comparing the letters in Fig. 4.with those in Fig. 5. It will be noted that in Fig. 4 there is anapparent irregularity in the spacing of the letters due to thearrangement of the serifs. The body and set of the type carry ing theseletters is indicated in both figures by the dotted lines a. In Fig. 5 itwill be seen that the letters may be overlapped, as it were-that is tosay, the serifs of one letter lie in the same vertical line with theserifs of another letter, so that the letters may be put very closelytogether and without losing their characteristics, the serifs formingthe faces of the extension characters. The ornamentation of the lettersmay, in fact, be made very much more elaborate and yet require lessspace in the setting of the type. These This latter instance extensioncharacters may be made 011 bodies the same as that of the letter, asshown in Fig. 3, or divided in halves, as shown in Fig. 2, this latterarrangement being preferable in that with a fewer number of extensioncharacters a larger number of designs may be made up. It is alsopossible to divide them into other fractions, it thought best.

As has been intimated above, this invention may be applied to fonts ofother designs than that I have shown, the invention consisting not inany specific design of font nor of serifs or other ornamentations, butin combining with a font a series of separate extension characterswhereby each letter will be separated from its neighbor, these extensioncharacters carrying some addition to the letter, which makes it moreornate, and perhaps an apostrophe or punctuation mark as well. Muchfreedom of design is thus permitted, as portions of any character mayoverlap the intermediate spaces on either side. For example, all theascenders of a font may overlap the total width of the intermediatepieces on the right-hand side, as shown in the drawings with the letterf, and in the same way all the descenders may overlap on the lefthandside, or they may all overlap nearly half the set of the extensioncharacters on either or both sides without the space alloted to onecharacter trespassing on that of another, and thereby causing them toride. Moreover, by not using these extension characters the letters maybe changed in appearance by leaving off some of the terminal lines, orthe terminal lines may be left off entirely, thus giving the appearanceof an entirely different font.

In designing a font of type with which to embody my invention theextension characters need not be many in character, for each one may beso designed as to form an addition to several letters having the samegeneral shape. Thus one design may be used after either one of themiddle letters, so called, and another design between two of the middleletters, &c., and when half-extension pieces are used this design mayalso be used between the body or open portion of the ascending lettersand one of the short letters, an appropriate half-extension characterbeing used for the ascending portion of the letter. Thus with but fewadditional characters the appearance of a font of old design may beradically changed.

Where the character of the design will permit and when the extensioncharacters are cast on. a body one-half the size of that on which thefont is cast, the extension characters may be reduced to three in numberto be used in connection with a blank space of the same body and set asthe extension characters: No. 1, an extension character consisting of asingle line which may be used on the bottom right-hand side of acharacter and the'same inverted used on the top left-hand side; No. 2,an extension character consisting of a single line which may be used onthe lower left-hand side of a character and the same inverted used forthe upper right-hand side; No. 3, an extension character consisting oftwo lines which may be used between any two middle letters requiring aline from each side on the bottom and the same inverted used between anytwo middle letters requiring a line on each side on the top.

In the above description I have used the term letter as inclusive notonly of the letters, but also of the numerals, punctuationmarks, andother characters ordinarily found in a font of type and in distinctionfrom the extension characters.

It will be noted that by having the extension characters cast with adeep shoulder, deeper than that of the type, it is possible in certaindesigns of type to avoid kerning on certain letters, like lower-case f,where there may be an overhang on either or both sides. Thisconstruction is shown in Fig. 6, wherein an extension-piece is cast witha deep shoulder, as at b, so that, for example, the overhang b of smallf may be cast sufliciently thick to make it strong. Fig. 7 shows aspace-piece 13 cast with a shoulder deep in comparison with the shoulderon the extension-piece B. In describing these extension characters itmust be borne in mind that they combine spaces with the addition orornamentation to a letter, which addition or ornamentation has nomeaning in itself, but which serves to complete the letter from theartistic standpoint merely and in the setting of the type to allow oneletter to apparently overlap the other by virtue of the fact that theextension character may contain two additions or ornamentations, one tobe applied to the preceding letter and one to the succeeding letter.Moreover, by being made in bodywise fractions-that is, fractions of thatdimension of the face of the 'type which carries the height of theletter-a fewer number of different extension characters may be suppliedto the font, as the characters may be set in either one of twopositions, the same character thus serving either as an addition, forexample, to the lower part of the preceding letter or the upper part ofthe succeeding letter, and where both are used between the same pair ofletters the letters will appear to overlap.

My invention therefore consists in extension characters which areessentially spacepieces having upon them certain faces which may beeither additions or ornamentations to the letters between which they areset, giving the appearance in some cases of an overlapping of theletters and in other cases allowing the letters to approach more nearlyto each other than has heretofore been practicable in some kinds oftype.

That I claim as my invention is- 1. In a font of type, extensioncharacters, each carrying a face forming an addition or ornamentationadapted to register indiscrimifraction of the letter-carryingtype-bodies of the font, and adapted to be composed with other extensioncharacters and spaces to form a composite extension character of equaldimension bodywise with the letter-carrying type-bodies, as described.

3. In a font of type, extension-pieces, each carrying a face forming anaddition or ornamentation indiscriminately to several letters in saidfont, and-adapted to be COIII posed with said letters, the saidextension-pieces serving to space said letters and havingfaces adaptedto register with the faces of said letters and form a finish therefor,whereby an impression from said type will appear to overlap, asdescribed.

4. In combination, a series of type and ters and said extension-piecesscrvin g to space said letters, certain of said extension-pieces havingfaces adapted to register both with the face of the next preceding typeand with the face of the next succeeding type to form an independentfinish to each, whereby an .impression from said type will appear tooverlap, as described.

5. In combination, a series of type and a series of extension-piecesadapted to be arranged alternately, the faces of said type comprisingletters and said extension-pieces comprising halves adapted to becomposed bodywise to form spaces to space said letters, certain of saidhalves having faces adapted to register either with the face of the nextpreceding type or by reversal with theface of the next succeeding typeto form an independent finish to either, as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto set my

